Genesis 20:17 Komentář

We are here returning to the story of Abraham; yet that part of it which is here recorded is not to his honour. The fairest marbles have their flaws, and, while there are spots in the sun, we must not expect any thing spotless under it. The scripture, it should be remarked, is impartial in relating the blemishes even of its most celebrated characters. We have here, I. Abraham's sin in denying his wife, and Abimelech's sin thereupon in taking her (Gen 20:1, Gen 20:2). II. God's discourse with Abimelech in a dream, upon this occasion, wherein he shows him his error (Gen 20:3), accepts his plea (Gen 20:4-6), and directs him to make restitution (Gen 20:7). III. Abimelech's discourse with Abraham, wherein he chides him for the cheat he had put upon him (Gen 20:8-10), and Abraham excuses it as well as he can (Gen 20:11-13). IV. The good issue of the story, in which Abimelech restores Abraham his wife (Gen 20:14-16), and Abraham, by prayer, prevails with God for the removal of the judgment Abimelech was under (Gen 20:17, Gen 20:18).

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 20 This chapter relates the removal of Abraham to Gerar, Gen 20:1; the king of Gerar's taking to him Sarah, whom Abraham had called his sister, Gen 20:2; who is rebuked of God for it in a dream, Gen 20:3; for which he makes an apology that is admitted, only he is ordered to restore to Abraham his wife, Gen 20:4; and accordingly early in the morning he called his servants, and acquainted them with what had happened, Gen 20:8; and then sent for Abraham, and expressed his resentment at his usage of him, Gen 20:9; which Abraham defended as well as he could, Gen 20:10; the issue of all which was, great kindness was shown to Abraham, and his wife restored to him, though with a reproof to her from the king, Gen 20:14; upon which Abraham prayed for the healing of Abimelech and his family, in which he was heard and answered, Gen 20:17.

So Abraham prayed unto God,.... As the Lord had told Abimelech be would, Gen 20:7; he might pray for the forgiveness of him and his wife, and might give thanks that Sarah had been restored to him; but chiefly it was on account of Abimelech and his family: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants: who by reason of some disease were rendered unfit for and incapable of cohabitation with their husbands, and they with them; but upon Abraham's prayer for them, who was heard, they were healed, and the disorder removed; the Targum of Jonathan is,"his wife and concubines;" and they bare children; cohabited and conceived, and bare and brought forth children, all which are comprehended in this expression.

But it does not seem to me superfluous that mention is made not only of Abim-elech’s wife but also of his handmaids, especially in that place that says, “God healed them, and they bore children. For he had closed [their wombs] that they might not bear.” So far as we can perceive in such difficult passages, we think natural philosophy can be called Abimelech’s wife, but his handmaids represent the contrivances of dialectic which are diverse and various by virtue of the nature of the schools.Abraham, meanwhile, desires to share the gift of divine virtue also with the Gentiles, but it is not yet time for the grace of God to pass over from the former people to the Gentiles. For the apostle also, although under another viewpoint and figure, says nevertheless, “A woman is bound to the law so long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is loosed from the law so that she is no longer an adulteress if she is with another man.” First, therefore, the law of the letter must die so that, thus free at last, the soul may now marry the spirit and receive the marriage of the New Testament. Now this present time is the time of the calling of the Gentiles and of the death of the law, in which time free souls, at last loosed from the law of the husband, can marry a new husband, Christ. But if you wish to be taught how the law is dead, look and see. Where now are the sacrifices? Where now is the altar? Where is the temple? Where are the purifications? Where is the celebration of the Passover? Is not the law dead in all these things? Or let those friends and defenders of the letter keep the letter of the law if they can. According to this spiritual interpretation, therefore, Pharaoh, that is, an impure man and a destroyer, could not at all receive Sarah, that is, virtue. Later Abimelech, that is, he who was living purely and philosophically, could indeed receive her, because he was seeking “with a pure heart,” but “the time had not yet come.” Virtue therefore remains with Abraham; it remains with circumcision, until the time should come that in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom “dwells all the fullness of deity corporeally,” complete and perfect virtue might pass over to the church of the Gentiles. At that time, therefore, the house of Abim-elech and his handmaids, whom the Lord healed, will bear sons of the church. For this is the time in which “the barren” will bear and in which “many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.” For the Lord opened the womb of the barren and made it fruitful, so that she bears a nation “all at once.” But also the saints cry out and say, “Lord, from fear of you we have conceived in the womb and given birth; we have produced the spirits of your salvation on the earth.” Whence also Paul likewise says, “My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you.”15 Such sons, therefore, the whole church of God produces, and such it brings forth. For “he who sows in the flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption.” Now the sons of the Spirit are those about whom also the apostle says, “The woman shall be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and purity.”17 Let the church of God therefore in this way understand the births, in this way receive the procreations, in this way uphold the deeds of the fathers with a fitting and honorable interpretation, in this way not disgrace the words of the Holy Spirit with foolish and Jewish fables but reckon them to be full of honor, full of virtue and usefulness. Otherwise, what edification will we receive when we read that Abraham, such a great patriarch, not only lied to king Abimelech but also surrendered his wife’s chastity to him? In what way does the wife of so great a patriarch edify us if she is supposed to have been exposed to defilements through marital indulgence? These things are what the Jews suppose, along with those who are friends of the letter, not of the spirit. But we, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” are made spiritual in deed and understanding in Christ Jesus our Lord, “to whom belongs glory and sovereignty forever and ever. Amen.”

Unless Sarah received renewed youth in the seed that she had received, Abim-elech would not have desired a woman ninety years old. Then Abraham prayed and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female slaves so that they bore children, because from the time [Abim-elech] had decided to marry Sarah until he returned her, pangs of childbirth struck all the women in his household; they would kneel down, but they could not give birth.

Abraham leaves Mamre, and, after having sojourned at Kadesh and Shur, settles in Gerar, Gen 20:1. Abimelech takes Sarah, Abraham having acknowledged her only as his sister, Gen 20:2. Abimelech is warned by God in a dream to restore Sarah, Gen 20:3. He asserts his innocence, Gen 20:4, Gen 20:5. He is farther warned, Gen 20:6, Gen 20:7. Expostulates with Abraham, Gen 20:8-10. Abraham vindicates his conduct, Gen 20:11-13. Abimelech restores Sarah, makes Abraham a present of sheep, oxen, and male and female slaves, Gen 20:14; offers him a residence in any part of the land, Gen 20:15; and reproves Sarah, Gen 20:16. At the intercession of Abraham, the curse of barrenness is removed from Abimelech and his household, Gen 20:17, Gen 20:18.

So Abraham prayed - This was the prime office of the נביא nabi; see Gen 20:7.

ABRAHAM'S DENIAL OF HIS WIFE. (Gen. 20:1-18) Abraham journeyed from thence . . . and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur--Leaving the encampment, he migrated to the southern border of Canaan. In the neighborhood of Gerar was a very rich and well-watered pasture land.

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham removed from the grove of Mamre at Hebron to the south country, hardly from the same fear as that which led Lot from Zoar, but probably to seek for better pasture. Here he dwelt between Kadesh (Gen 14:7) and Shur (Gen 16:7), and remained for some time in Gerar, a place the name of which has been preserved in the deep and broad Wady Jurf el Gerr (i.e., torrent of Gerar) about eight miles S.S.E. of Gaza, near to which Rowland discovered the ruins of an ancient town bearing the name of Khirbet el Gerr. Here Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar, like Pharaoh in Egypt, took Sarah, whom Abraham had again announced to be his sister, into his harem, - not indeed because he was charmed with the beauty of the woman of 90, which was either renovated, or had not yet faded (Kurtz), but in all probability "to ally himself with Abraham, the rich nomad prince" (Delitzsch). From this danger, into which the untruthful statement of both her husband and herself had brought her, she was once more rescued by the faithfulness of the covenant God. In a dream by night God appeared to Abimelech, and threatened him with death (מת הנּך en te moriturum) on account of the woman, whom he had taken, because she was married to a husband.

After this reparation, God healed Abimelech at Abraham's intercession; also his wife and maids, so that they could bear again, for Jehovah had closed up every womb in Abimelech's house on Sarah's account. אמהות, maids whom the king kept as concubines, are to be distinguished from שׁפחות female slaves (Gen 20:14). That there was a material difference between them, is proved by Sa1 25:41. כּל־רחם עצר כּל does not mean, as is frequently supposed, to prevent actual childbirth, but to prevent conception, i.e., to produce barrenness (Sa1 1:5-6). This is evident from the expression "He hath restrained me from bearing" in Gen 16:2 (cf. Isa 66:9, and Sa1 21:6), and from the opposite phrase, "open the womb," so as to facilitate conception (Gen 29:31, and Gen 30:22). The plague brought upon Abimelech's house, therefore, consisted of some disease which rendered the begetting of children (the coitus) impossible. This might have occurred as soon as Sarah was taken into the royal harem, and therefore need not presuppose any lengthened stay there. There is no necessity, therefore, to restrict ויּלדוּ to the women and regard it as equivalent to ותּלדנה, which would be grammatically inadmissible; for it may refer to Abimelech also, since ילד signifies to beget as well as to bear. We may adopt Knobel's explanation, therefore, though without approving of the inference that Gen 20:18 was an appendix of the Jehovist, and arose from a misunderstanding of the word ויּלדוּ in Gen 20:17. A later addition Gen 20:18 cannot be; for the simple reason, that without the explanation give there, the previous verse would be unintelligible, so that it cannot have been wanting in any of the accounts. The name Jehovah, in contrast with Elohim and Ha-Elohim in Gen 20:17, is obviously significant. The cure of Abimelech and his wives belonged to the Deity (Elohim). Abraham directed his intercession not to Elohim, an indefinite and unknown God, but to האלהים; for the God, whose prophet he was, was the personal and true God. It was He too who had brought the disease upon Abimelech and his house, not as Elohim or Ha-Elohim, but as Jehovah, the God of salvation; for His design therein was to prevent the disturbance of frustration of His saving design, and the birth of the promised son from Sarah. But if the divine names Elohim and Ha-Elohim indicate the true relation of God to Abimelech, and here also it was Jehovah who interposed for Abraham and preserved the mother of the promised seed, our narrative cannot be merely an Elohistic side-piece appended to the Jehovistic account in Gen 12:14., and founded upon a fictitious legend. The thoroughly distinctive character of this event is a decisive proof of the fallacy of any such critical conjecture. Apart from the one point of agreement-the taking of Abraham's wife into the royal harem, because he said she was his sister in the hope of thereby saving his own life (an event, the repetition of which in the space of 24 years is by no means startling, when we consider the customs of the age) - all the more minute details are entirely different in the two cases. In king Abimelech we meet with a totally different character from that of Pharaoh. We see in him a heathen imbued with a moral consciousness of right, and open to receive divine revelation, of which there is not the slightest trace in the king of Egypt. And Abraham, in spite of his natural weakness, and the consequent confusion which he manifested in the presence of the pious heathen, was exalted by the compassionate grace of God to the position of His own friend, so that even the heathen king, who seems to have been in the right in this instance, was compelled to bend before him and to seek the removal of the divine punishment, which had fallen upon him and his house, through the medium of his intercession. In this way God proved to the Philistine king, on the one hand, that He suffers no harm to befall His prophets (Psa 105:15), and to Abraham, on the other, that He can maintain His covenant and secure the realization of His promise against all opposition from the sinful desires of earthly potentates. It was in this respect that the event possessed a typical significance in relation to the future attitude of Israel towards surrounding nations.